Yesterday I participated in an eMarketer webinar on “The Future of US Retail Ecommerce” and I wanted to draw your attention to one of their predictions: Ecommerce will outperform in-store sales over the next few years. And according to eMarketer, one of the factors driving that growth is Augmented Reality, which they label as a “sophisticated merchandising technique”. Of course as some of you may know, here at Zugara we’re just “a touch bullish” on Augmented Reality’s role in e-commerce’s future. But it’s always great to see that sort of 3rd party validation.
As usual, eMarketer provided a ton of great data, here are a few more points that I found interesting (I’ve embedded their entire presentation below though, should you wish to spend some time with it):
• Women account for 71% of the total dollar amount spent on online Apparel, Jewelry and Accessories.
• 87.5% of internet users shop online.
• 83% of online shoppers, are buyers. The #1 item holding people back from buying is the desire to see and touch.
The blog post below initially ran on AdAge last Friday, January 28th and you can view the actual post here. It’s no secret how we feel about the current crop of Mobile AR apps being overhyped to the point they’ll damage credibility for the entire AR industry, but read below and let us know your own thoughts on whether or not you agree…at least we’re content knowing Forrester Research shares the same opinion…
We get quite a few inquiries involving mobile AR and pass on most of them. Why? For starters, we don’t feel like we should waste potential clients money. There’s a gaping gulf between the practicality of current mobile AR and what’s shown in marketing driven or concept videos. A great example of this is World Lens. If you haven’t yet checked out this AR tech it’s a concept that is game changing – it will literally translate Spanish text into English text in your mobile viewfinder when you load the app and point your viewfinder at text. But there’s a problem when you view the promise of the video and actually try the current execution. I’ve tried the app and though the potential is unlimited for this technology, the experience is subpar. I’ve included the marketing video for World Lens below and I suggest you watch that and then read this review from ReadWriteWeb which did a more formal review of the app itself. In short, the execution doesn’t live up to the concept video and current user reviews on iTunes reinforce that.
Though World Lens is the type of mobile AR app that promises utility and will likely be game changing once the kinks are worked out, it’s the current crop of “iPhone Lite AR” mobile AR apps that have fueled the level of hype for AR that will be hard to overcome. Though iTunes created an Augmented Reality section for these types of apps, most of them aren’t even true AR. Most of them involve using a stationary image you place via your viewfinder on an object or use the viewfinder itself as the backdrop for the app. The Star Wars Falcon Gunner game is a great example of this. Is it true AR? Not really. Though this is a fun game, when you use the AR option, it’s basically removing the Death Star in-game background and replacing it with your real world viewfinder background. There’s no additional interaction from the game with the real world background so it really is “Lite AR” in that the AR function itself doesn’t provide any additional gameplay value or interaction. Most of the iPhone Mobile AR games also use this same approach and it’s not helping to advance the mobile AR field one bit. In fact it’s hurting the field and leading to underwhelming consumer expectations of mobile AR.
A recent research report from Forrester sums up what we’ve been saying for the last 2 years – that mobile augmented reality is very overhyped and not ready for primetime. We’ve blogged numerous times about issues and limitations of mobile AR – processing power, battery life, development fragmentation (iOS / Android) and so on. Though everybody in the AR industry will agree that mobile AR will one day become the focal point of all AR, it’s not there yet and won’t be for another few years. We’ll likely start seeing some innovation in the mobile AR area in 2011 but it likely won’t be until 2013 or so that mobile AR really starts reaching its potential.
However, there are some mobile AR executions that do show potential and where the mobile AR field is headed. Layar is the most prominent mobile AR developer and they’re doing some interesting things with their platform mostly as it pertains to enhanced information. And I’m referring to executions like showing where the Berlin Wall used to be when visiting Germany vs. overlaying directional information in the mobile viewfinder which is still inaccurate and limited to current mobile handset technology. Two of my other favorite mobile AR apps include Sunseeker and iButterfly and show that utility based AR applications can be developed with current technology.
The press often assumes that all of AR is mobile AR. But it’s not. As even Forrester points out, web and kiosk based AR executions are much further along in terms of consumer adoption and you’ll likely see more of these executions in 2011 than others:
“According to Mr. Husson, mobile augmented reality applications are not delivering. There are more significant short-term opportunities to tap into with Web-based and kiosk-based augmented reality solutions and there is great potential for the technology in ecommerce.”
There’s a reason why web and kiosk based-AR is more practical for your brand right now. With the web, you have the greatest reach for your AR application especially when you develop with Adobe Flash to obtain the greatest reach without the need for a proprietary plug-in. And with kiosks, you have greater processing power and removal of consumer barriers (i.e. markers, webcams) to achieve innovative and engaging executions for retail, OOH, POP and event marketing. But with mobile you still have the limitations I listed above that are not going to be overcome in 2011, much less 2012. Though tablets might provide some innovation in the mobile AR arena, web and kiosk-based AR will likely be your best bet for any AR initiatives you’re targeting to develop. Even Connected TV sets and gaming devices that offer webcam functionality will likely be a more developed and practical platform for AR than mobile. Microsoft Kinect with 8 million sales in it’s first 60 days is already showing quick adoption of AR in the digital living room.
In final, the PR value for AR is diminishing quickly for brands and doing an AR application or initiative just to do it, does not make sense anymore. If I had a nickel for every inquiry we get where “I want to have the consumer point their phone at an old car and change it into X brand”, well I’d be able to buy a 99 cent mobile AR app. AR can be a very useful technology for many different areas and industries and it’s contingent on brands and their agencies to look to utility, practicality and value over quick PR and concept reels for their AR needs.
Since we were founded in 2001, Zugara has always focused on emerging media and technology in the Interactive Marketing and Advertising industries. Throughout those years, we continually developed initiatives and innovations in some of our core areas of expertise – social media, web, interactive video and mobile. However, in 2008, it became apparent that the digital ecosystem was continuing to fragment and that it was getting increasingly difficult to try and be a “Jack of All Trades, Master of None”. We firmly believe that as these 4 core areas (mobile, web, video and social) continue to fragment at an ever increasing speed, it’s best to focus on one core area – and that area for us is Augmented Reality.
It was not easy getting here and I want to personally thank all past and present employees of Zugara for helping to make this happen. We still have a long way to go but without the help from just about everybody involved in Zugara’s world throughout the years, we would not have made it this far. It’s hard enough running a business in good times, but restructuring and ‘rebooting’ during a recession has been probably the most formidable task Zugara has taken on in it’s past 9 years.
But now we look towards the future – and that future is Augmented Reality. AR became the first technology I’ve ever seen resonate deeply with our entire group and for the last 2 years we’ve focused almost entirely on creating innovative software, executions and concepts in this field to help show others how we see AR as an integral part of everybody’s future.
With all that said, I hope you take a moment to check out our new site. The new site has a much clearer focus on what our new goal as a company is and what we now offer – Augmented Reality Software. Our flagship product continues to be The Webcam Social Shopper – Augmented Reality E-Commerce Software – that will continue to evolve the e-commerce experience for the consumer. We are also launching quite a few ZugMO Motion Capture based games and kiosk-based AR executions over the next few months, so please check the site (or our blog) to see how these areas in particular will continue to grow as people become more accustomed to the NUI (Natural User Interface and gestural interaction).
In final, I want to thank again everybody for their support of Zugara over the last few years and look forward to an exciting (and augmented) future!
Zugara and One To One Interactive are looking to do a pretty mind-blowing session at the upcoming SXSW Interactive conference. If you’re not familiar with Neuromarketing, you can read more about it here and here. Needless to say, this should be a pretty engaging panel so I hope you take a moment to make sure it’s part of SXSW’s program by voting for it here.
You can find other details on the panel here but this is the short description:
“Augmented reality and neuromarketing have been getting a lot of attention as cutting edge innovations that are available to brands to engage their customers and measure effectiveness. This panel will discuss ground breaking neuromarketing research that explores the difference between an AR e-commerce application vs. a traditional web based e-commerce application. The study will highlight perceptual changes, the level of neurological attention, and the post-purchase emotions that each experience yields. The study hypothesis is that e-commerce applications that utilize AR to enhance the buying experience will yield higher levels of positive engagement vs. traditional e-commerce applications.”
We Are Organized Chaos (WAOC) is Zugara’s (www.zugara.com) interactive marketing and advertising blog where we’ll be featuring some great projects and discussing upcoming trends in the digital world. Work — good and bad — will be critiqued. Hope you’ll enjoy reading our insights and thoughts on interactive.
